


Waiting for you to come home

by NightError_145



Series: NieR Pairings fics [2]
Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Androids as humans, F/F, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, I played with ages a bit here, I'm Bad At Summaries, Romance, domestic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 05:18:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14634903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightError_145/pseuds/NightError_145
Summary: 21O spends an evening with her son, while her wife is out working.Seperated from the Rare pairs collection due to main focus not being a rare pair.





	Waiting for you to come home

**Author's Note:**

> Mother's day one shot with everyone's favourite mom: 21O!
> 
> Also 9S is supposed to be in grade school.

    21O placed the casserole she had just finished into the oven and let out a sigh, _Well that's dinner out of the way, now I can relax for a little._ The blonde-haired woman walked over to the living room, and pulled out her copy of _20,000 Leagues Under The Sea_ , which had been recommended to her by her friend White a few days earlier. She read for a good 10 minutes (finishing roughly 40 pages), before the sound of the front door opening made her stand up, followed by an excited voice.

  “I’m home, Mom!” 21O soon felt arms wrapping around her midsection, she looked down to see a head of white hair.

“ How did your day at school go, 9S?” the boy looked up at his mother, and gave her a smile—one which 21O couldn’t help but reciprocate.

“It was great!” 9S bobbed with excitement,

“Ms. A2 was in a really good mood today! 32 said it probably had something to do with Ms. A4, but I’m not sure…”

  A2 was 9S' teacher, and although 21O was not on the best terms with the woman, she didn’t dislike her. A4 was the teacher for the grade above 9S', but she seemed to always end up running into 21O constantly. The blonde would admit that she definitely found A4 more likeable than A2, but still thought she was a bit to bubbly and cheery at times. _Still, it’s odd for him to be this happy. Especially given how often that sort of thing seems to be happening these days._

“What else happened, sweetie? You’re a bit too excited for that to be all that happened today.” The boy had relinquished his grip on his mother, and at the question he blushed.

“Um…6O invited me to her house on Saturday to work on a project…” _Oh, that girl he likes._ 21O knew exactly what here son was going to say next, “M-mom, could you take me to 6O's house this Saturday?”

   21O had met the girl twice before, she had only moved in roughly three years ago, and 9S had only been in the same class as her for about two years. She seemed to be nice enough, and her personality matched 9S' almost perfectly. Of course, the woman couldn’t imagine the two being in a relationship at the moment, or anytime soon for that matter. _Maybe when they’re older…high school perhaps?_ 21O shook the thought and drew her attention back on the boy waiting patiently for her answer.

“I don't see the harm in It,” 21O gave 9S a smile, “Of course you can go, sweetie.”

“Really?” the boy's face lit up, “Thanks, Mom!”

   21O quickly found herself wrapped up in a hug again, which she reciprocated. Although the woman didn’t necessarily dislike these embraces, she had worried about how long they lasted recently. A short hug from 9S had become rare. In addition, they also seemed almost desperate as of late, like her son would lose her if he didn’t hold tight enough. A small frown formed on 21O's face.

Grabbing 9S by the shoulders, she gently pried herself out of his grip, and kneeled down to look him in the eye.

“Sweetie?” she spoke softly, carefully. “Do you miss Mama?”

   Her son frowned and looked down, before nodding. _I thought so…_ 21O's wife had been away for a good week and a half for work. 9S had taken it surprisingly well at first, but on the fifth night, there were signs that it was difficult for him.

_“Mom?” 9S peeked in from the doorway. “Can I come in?”_

_21O put down the book she was reading on the end table, noticing the time as she did. The woman found it strange that 9S was up so late, and even more strange was that he had come to her room—something he hadn’t done in over a year. She stood up and walked over to the door._

_“Its really late, sweetie.” 21O scanned the boy's face while talking, noticing how pale it was. “Why aren’t you in bed?”_

_Of course, she already knew the answer to this question: he had had a nightmare. The only reason she asked these questions was to make sure that **he** knew to tell the truth._

_“I…I had a nightmare.” 9S hugged his body, and looked down at the floor._ There’s more to the story, huh? _21O had seen the gesture before, her son did it whenever he was uncomfortable with saying something. The last time he had done it, he had accidentally clogged one of the toilets. The time before that, it had been when he was caught trying to bake a cake for her birthday (although 21O's wife had said it was mostly her fault for giving him the idea)._

_“And?” 21O pried for further info as nicely as she could. “What else?”_

_“U-um….” 9S seemed to shrink away at the question. His mother knelt down and placed her hands on his cheeks, guiding his gaze to hers._

_“Sweetie, if you don’t tell me what happened, I won’t be able to help you.” She tried her best to smile, but she could feel a hint of sorrow escape her expression._

_“I…I heard a story from Ms. A2 today. S-she said that if you wake up in the middle of the night, and you hear t-tapping on your window, t-then the Boogeyman is coming in, and he’ll eat you.”_ Well, looks like I have to have a little talk with her… _“A-and when I woke up, I-I heard him! So I came to you.”_

 _9S was shaking; 21O could tell from the way he was talking that he was also close to tears._ That woman and I are definitely going to have a **long** talk. _21O pulled her son close and held him against her chest, she could feel the tears start to moisten her shirt. She ignored it and merely rubbed the boy's back, rocking him back and forth, doing her best to calm him._

_“Shh—it’s okay, sweetie. I’m here.” She slowed down her rocking as 9S’ sobs died down, before finally pulling away from him. “There’s no such thing as the Boogeyman, okay? Don’t believe those stories so easily.”_

_“…B-but…I-I heard tapping on my window!” 9S protested, “It was him!”_

_“Do you want to show me your room then?” 21O stood up, “If there really is a Boogeyman, I’ll take you wherever you’d like tomorrow.”_

_Of course, 21O knew there wasn’t actually a Boogeyman, she had made the offer because 9S had been bugging her about going to a certain park for the last couple days, and she planned to go with him on the weekend; however, he had been somewhat adamant about going after school in the evening, since the weekends were usually movie nights or game nights. Whenever she had asked why they couldn’t go on the weekend, he had told her that it was a secret._

_“Really?” 9S perked up the minute she made the offer, Bingo._

_“Really.” 21O gave the boy a smile, which he began to reciprocate, but quickly fell into a worried expression._

_“But…what will happen if he gets you, Mom?” there was a genuine concern in 9S' voice, 21O had to hold back a laugh. Her son was quite the worrywart at times,_ Whoever his lucky girl is, they’re not going to be able to do anything without him sticking his nose in, first.

_“I’ll be fine, sweetie.” She flexed her bicep and put her hand on her arm. “I have ‘Mom-power'!”_

_9S laughed when his mother did this, as did she._ Normally, I’m not the one doing this though.

_“Okay, let’s go.” The two of them walked towards 9S' room (the formerly mentioned clinging to his mother’s shirt). The door to it was closed—likely from 9S trying to keep the ‘Boogeyman’ from getting out._

_“Alright, I’m going to open the door and turn on the lights, okay 9S?” the boy nodded and put on a brave face—even though the grip on his mother’s shirt had become tighter._  
_Slowly, she turned the handle and opened the door. Wind could be heard blowing outside, and there were taps coming from the window. Behind her, she felt 9S bury his face in her back. Her hand reached for the light switch, and…_

 _Revealed it was nothing but branches from an overgrown tree hitting the window._ That, in and of itself is scary. _She looked down at her son, who still had his eyes shut tight, and place a hand on his shoulder._

_“Open your eyes, 9S.” The boy did so slowly, before relaxing upon realising there was no threat in his room. “See? There’s nothing there.”_

_“Oh…” 9S' shoulders sagged.._

_“Is something wrong?” She knew he’d be disappointed about not being able to go wherever he wanted tomorrow, but there was something else: he still looked scared. “Are you still too scared to sleep by yourself?”_

_“Yeah…” 9S was quiet, and had moved closer to his mother again._

_“Do you want me to stay with you until you fall asleep?” Had he been younger, 21O would have shared her bed with him; however, 9S was getting too old for the two of them to sleep together. Unfortunately, 9S seemed to think otherwise._

_“Can I sleep with you instead, Mom? I don’t like the sound of the branches…” He gave her puppy-eyed stare,_ That shouldn’t be legal _, 21O thought to herself,_ how is a mother supposed to say no to that? _She let out a sigh._

_“Okay, fine. But just this once, alright?” 21O shut off the light in her son's room, and walked back to her own, grasping the boy's hand during the trip._

_9S tried hopping up onto the bed as best he could, but his height forced him to be helped up by his mother, who shut off the light as she slid under the covers._

_“Goodnight, sweetie.” She said as she closed her eyes._

_“Goodnight, Mom…” 9S drifted off into sleep, sinking into the pillows and cushions. Just before 21O had fallen completely asleep however, he mumbled something. “Mama…”_

   Of course, she had forgotten about the little comment the next day—that was just how human brains worked—however, signs that her son was becoming more and more lonely picked up in the days after that: hugs lasted longer, hugs were more frequent, nightmares happened nearly once every night—in all honesty 21O wanted her wife to return more than anyone, she had always been better at handling 9S whenever he got upset over nightmares, or if he was worried about something before going to sleep. _Come back already…_

   21O placed a hand on her son's cheek, offering the boy a small smile in the process.

“I miss her too, sweetie. Just…let’s both our best to hold out until she gets back okay?” the oven beeped off behind her, “Come on, let’s have dinner.”

   21O planted a kiss on 9S' forehead before standing up and grabbing the casserole from the oven. Most of dinner was uneventful; normally, 21O wasn’t the one who talked at the table, instead it was usually 9S who hosted all the conversations. However, even he had fallen silent. _Plus **she** would always ask about how his day went…_  
    After the two of them had cleaned up all the dishes (9S had done about half of them—all the others were too fragile for him to handle, in 21O's mind), they both settle down in the family room and worked through 9S' homework. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t capable of doing the problems himself (his grades in academic subjects was far above others in his grade—6O was one of the only others who came close), but she knew that his teacher would normally leave her students with an extra ‘bonus question’. The question was supposed to be one that the students were supposed to work with their parents to solve, however 9S proved at the beginning of the grade that he was able to solve the question without his mothers' help, so A2 had begun to give him tougher questions for bonuses. Although 21O didn’t particularly approve of half the things that 9S' teacher did, she had to agree with that decision; It had allowed her to bond more with her son, something which she wouldn’t be able to do much longer, given that it would only be a few more years before her son was off to high school and would likely become annoyed with her constant nagging. _Why do I think I’ll become the naggy parent?_

“Mom?” 21O came back from her thoughts, and looked at her son.

“What is it?” She expected 9S to ask her with help on a ‘bonus question’; instead, he pointed to a numbered question—the subject was English.

“What’s an ‘accountant’?” _They’re allowed to use words like that in his grade?_ 21O had to remind herself that 9S was shorter than most people in his grade, and then had to remind herself how old 9S was. _That’s pretty pathetic of me as a parent._

“Its basically someone who writes down the amount of money people have in a book.” she explained it while reading over the question—which was pretty much just a matter of rewriting the sentence to fit in the past and future tense. ‘The accountant goes to the shop.’ _He shouldn’t have had much issues with that so why…_ It only then dawned on 21O that 9S understood the question perfectly well, and that he definitely also knew that ‘accountant’ was a noun (even if he didn’t know what it meant). 21O realized after that she had been frowning while her son was completing his homework. He had probably noticed earlier, and was just looking for a reason to distract his mother from her thoughts. _That part of him is just like her…_

“Oh.” 9S gave a small smile before turning back to his work, “Thanks, Mom!”

   21O let out an almost inaudible sigh, and smiled. _Thanks for looking out for me, sweetie._

    After 9S had finished (And packed away) the last of his homework, 21O grabbed the book which she had been reading with him for the last few days, and motioned for him to come to her. 9S slid onto his mother’s lap, pulling up a blanket as best he could over the both of them. 21O wrapped her arms around him, resting the book an arm’s length away, and began reading. It only took about 15 minutes of reading for 9S to fall asleep, not because 21O was boring to listen to—she always tried her best to imitate the characters, and always tried to reflect the mood with her voice—but rather because the book itself was at a rather dull portion (at least in 21O's opinion). The mother shut the book, gently placing it in the end table behind her, and ran her hand through 9S' hair. She smiled gently, _he looks so calm like this, so innocent_. Of course, he couldn’t sleep here on the couch, especially not with her—She would probably get back pain in the morning if she slept like this. Thankfully, she had learned exactly how to get him to his bedroom without ruining his sleep. 21O brought her lips close to 9S' ear.

“Sweetie? We need to stand up, okay?” softly whispering in his ear, 21O slowly brought her left leg off of the couch, guiding her son's in the process. This was followed by their right legs.

“That's it; you’re doing great, sweetie.” Slowly allowing her son's feet to drop to the floor, she guided his body up, off of the couch. “Good job. Let’s start walking to your room now, okay?”

“…mm…” as if driven by some unseen force, 9S began walking, very slowly, forward. 21O nudged the boy in the right direction by giving little squeezes to his arms. After about 2 minutes, they had managed to make their way to the steps leading upstairs.

“Alright sweetie, you need to climb up the stairs now, so take big steps.” 21O gently placed her arms underneath 9S' armpits holding him up slightly as he climbed up the steps. “That’s it, keep on go—”

  The front door unlocked, startling 21O in the process. _Who—?_

  Her question was answered immediately after, upon hearing an all to familiar voice.

“I’m home.” 21O almost forgot 9S was still busy climbing stairs, _That was too close, I don’t think she would have liked to come home to see our son crying._ “…Must be in bed already…”

   21O heard the sound of boots being taken off, and of a coat being hung up; 9S was nearly at the top of the stairs at this point. _Come on already, just make it to your room._

“Hmm….” Oh no, 21O froze at the realization that she had forgotten to turn off the end table light, _she knows now, I never forget to turn off the lights._ Finally, 9S made it to the top stair, at which point 21O immediately leaned over and whispered as quietly as possible:

“Stop climbing, sweetie.” The boy immediately stopped lifting his leg and lowered it to the ground. The door to his room is right there come on now. 21O could hear a purse being placed on the kitchen counter, she had to hurry up. She began pushing 9S—just a little—in order to make his legs go faster. After an agonizing 30 seconds, 9S was finally in his bedroom; 21O carefully shut the door behind her, and guided 9S over to his bed, squeezing both of his arms to stop him at its edge.

“Great work, sweetie. Now lie down, and go to bed for Mom, okay?” her son listened and slowly climbed into the bed, where 21O tucked him in. After making sure he was comfortable, she planted a kiss on his forehead. “Goodnight, 9S.”

She turned around, and quietly tip-toed to the door; she opened it up very slowly and—

“Honey?” 21O froze up, her breath caught in her throat. Blue eyes stared back at her, a head of white hair kept neatly together made her step back a small bit.

“2…B…” even though it had only been a week, 21O felt tears starting to form in her eyes. She wrapped the woman in an embrace and kissed her on the lips. “You're back…early…”

“Something came up which cut the meeting short,” 2B wrapped her arms around her wife's waist. “I thought it might be a nice surprise for you and Nines if I showed up around dinner, but the traffic was heavy.”

“Well, you’d better wait until morning before you give 9S his surprise.” 21O sighed, “ I just finished putting him to bed.”

“He's already asleep, huh?” 2B looked at the door behind 21O, before returning to meet her gaze with a worried expression, “Me being gone wasn’t too hard on him, was it?”

“It was hard enough that he started having nightmares again, as I’ve said before.” 2B had only contacted them once since she left, of course it had to do with the nature of her work, but it definitely didn’t help make it any easier for 9S or herself. “And he also cried the last three nights while he was asleep.”

“Dammit…Some mother I am, huh?” 2B looked away and frowned, 21O brought a hand up to her wife's face and gave a consoling smile.

“You can’t help it if work takes you somewhere away from home,” 21O pressed her forehead to 2B's, “You’re supporting all of us by going.”

    2B gave a grateful smile before leaning in for another kiss. _I missed this feeling_ , 21O thought to herself as she indulged in the tenderness of 2B's lips, _So soft…_

“Mama?” 9S’ sleepy voice sounded from behind 21O, So much for waiting till morning; she had forgotten to close the door all the way. Immediately she removed her lips from 2B's, not really wanting 9S to see them having an ‘adult moment’. The boy started for a while with the same sleepy expression until he seemed to realize who was standing in front of him. “Mama!”

      2B kneeled down and spread out her arms as her son ran towards her. Soon enough, he was wrapped up in her embrace, tears streaming down his face. His mother merely rubbed the back of his head, whispering words that 21O wasn’t able to make out. After about a minute had passed, 2B looked up at 21O, motioning to their son with her head. Getting down on her knees, 21O wrapped both her son and wife in an embrace.

      The three of them stayed that way until 2B gave a tap to 9S' shoulder. A look of discomfort starting to form on her face.

“Okay, that’s enough, Nines.” 21O relinquished her grip, whereas 9S only looked at his mother, “Mama’s knees hurt, and you really need to sleep.”

    Slowly, the boy released 2B from the hug, sniffling a little as he did. A guilty expression passed over the woman’s face upon noticing this—an expression which was soon looking in 21O's direction. _No, we are not doing that again,_ was the look she returned to 2B.

      Unfortunately, 9S was now also looking at the blonde, giving her the same expression as her wife was. _Why do you two have to hang up on me like this?_ 21O cleared her throat before standing up.

“If you want, we can all sleep in my bed tonight, since I know you won't fall asleep otherwise.” 9S' eyes lit up, 2B relaxed her expression and gave a small smile, while 21O let out a defeated sigh and turned in the direction of her room. She ended up being stopped by a small hand grabbing her own. 9S looked up at her with a smile; 2B was holding his other hand, giving a smile to her wife as well. 21O couldn’t help but let a smile escape her lips as well. Wrapping her hand around her son's, 21O started walking to their bedroom.

“I think we can probably go to the park tomorrow, 9S.” The comment came out of nowhere, and hit the boy like a brick.

“R-really?” he looked up at his mother expectantly.

“Really. After all…” she looked at 2B, “We’re all here now.”

_As we should be._

…….

    When 21O woke up, she felt something push against her lips. _2B you shouldn’t do that with 9S right—_

     9S was the one kissing her. Any confusion or terror was soon replaced by anger however, when 21O noticed 2B covering her mouth in an attempt to stifle a laugh.

      When 9S woke up, he asked why one of his mothers had a sign around her neck saying: ‘I will not play childish pranks on my wife.’

**Author's Note:**

> 21O is best mom. 
> 
> In case you're wondering why 2B is the mom, it has a little to do with 9S viewing her as family in the game, as well as the original idea for this fic being part of the NieR rare pairs work.


End file.
